Pitchfork Review of our EP!

The Explorers Club
“Don’t Forget the Sun”
[unsigned; 2006]

Beach Boys. Beach Boys, Beach Boys. Beach Boys!!! Like Brian Wilson entering his own John Malkovich portal (so that’s why he stayed in bed), the Explorers Club’s musical language has a one-track vocabulary– Beach Boys?– but somehow speaks volumes. Unlike most psych-rockers who cite Pet Sounds as an influence, the Charleston, S.C., sextet would actually sound at home in that record’s grooves. No whiny indie vox here: Four singers pool their voices in majestic waves of harmony, while “God Only Knows” keyboards, horns, soft hand claps, and tinkling percussion make for the most convincingly Beach-ready recent production not helmed by New Orleans’ Hercules. It’d be a little tribute-bandy if it weren’t so damn effective; “Don’t Forget the Sun” places the group in a harmony-drenched, slightly spacey tradition spanning from the Zombies to Super Furry Animals. “I wish the summer sun would last the whole year long,” the Explorers Club sing. Learn to say their name– at least until they find their own portal and the reviews start writing themselves.